Gosh! The 400th small pleasures post, the weekly round up of fun, nice and good things that have happened during the week. The original idea came from A New Life Wandering back in the day, and I have just run with it. Anyway, here are the small pleasures this week – and yes there is a lot of food featured!
NB – the featured image at the top of the post was taken at lunch time when it was warm and the sun was shining (Jo of And Anyways…knows exactly where it was taken…). Then the Southerlies came in and the temperatures dropped…and the skies darkened….
In the basket
The wonky box deliverd a couple of staples – onions and carrots – some greens – broccoli, baby silverbeet (something new to me – I used two big handfuls in a pasta bake instead of spinach) and kailan or Chinese broccoli. Then there was the lovely surprise in the middle of winter, fresh tomatoes, and yet more avocados. I am storing last week’s delivery under water in a box in the fridge on the suggestion of a friend. This was topped it up with a couple of grapefruit, tamarillos, rainbow chard, fennel for Sunday’s pasta bake, pears, mushrooms and some pasta.
Wellington on a Plate 2024
On Friday, I had my first burger on Burger Wellington for this year. Burger Wellington is a sub section of the annual food festival, Wellington on a Plate, where venues all over the city compete to find the best burger. I decided to try the Hop Lobster at Concord, a Garage Project Beer battered lobster and shrimp patty, cos lettuce, American cheese, and pickles in a brioche bun, with a caviar butter dipping sauce (Garage Project is a local brewery). This tasted good but was very crumbly. The sauce was as exceptional as it sounds.
On Saturday, we headed over to Chaat Street for their WOAP menu, Dastarkhan. The menu suggested three kebabs per person and a biryani and bread – well, that was a lot of food and we should have just ordered perhaps 2 kebabs each. Anyway, we ate biryani-e-khas, which was made with goat and was really delicious and spicy and a cucumber raita topped with crispy chickpeas. The kebabs we ordered were: boti (x2), paneer gulnar, lucknawi seekh, tundey, nimbu mirch ke tikke – see the menu here, but there was a mix of lamb, chicken and some delicious paneer. A veritable feast!
Other eatings
I ordered up some gorgeous fig, walnut and fennel bread from Shelley Bay Baker which was excellent, and reminded me of a bread I sometimes got in Denmark. I made a long standing favourite pasta bake for Sunday dinner with left overs tonight (rainbow chard as a side on Sunday, broccoli on Monday). This week’s sandwich? Chicken, pesto and lots of salad from a place near work.
NZIFF
As well as Wellington on a Plate, the New Zealand International Film Festival is on right now. Unlike Laurie of Notes From the Hinterland, I only managed two films this year. On Wednesday morning I went to see the German film The Teachers’ Lounge at The Embassy cinema (pictured below). As the blurb says When one of her students is suspected of theft, teacher Carla Nowak decides to get to the bottom of the matter. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her. I would highly recommend this film, even if some bits were a little predictable.
On Sunday, we went out to the Roxy in Miramar (the screen in cinema 1 below) to see American Stories: Food, Family and Philosophy, a restored film from 1989. I thoroughly enjoyed this film, with its montage of monologues, humour, and moving stories telling the tale of Jewish-American identity.
Simple things
- Knowing spring is round the corner.
- Hearing that one of my cousin’s grandson is now a double bass player in the Sinfonia Varsovia
- Getting the ironing done – no – not really – but nice to see an empty ironing basket!
- Receiving some great pictures of my brother who seems to be settling in his new place of abode in Washington DC.
- Seeing the medals table from the Olympic games – New Zealand got 10 gold medals and ended up 11th in the table. Not bad for a country of 5 million people.
- Enjoying a lovely sunrise this morning on the way to work.
What were your small pleasures this week? Here are some other blog posts from a few fellow bloggers looking at the good things in life.
- Anne of Something Over Tea shares pictures from her August garden.
- There is another garden update from Maria of Green Dreams.
- Laurie is thankful on Thursday.
- There is a host of golden daffodils and other pops of yellow over at Deb’s World.
- Check out the Sunday Schnauzer over at The Widow Badass.
- Mr Tootlepedal takes is going potty over at Tootlepedal’s Blog.
- Jude over at Cornwall in Colours shares Cornwall in August.
- Natalie takes us around Philadelphia’s art works.
- And of course there is always a good cup of coffee over at Trent’s World.
- .…and all the other lovely bloggers out there. Sorry if I have missed anyone…..
Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.
You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @thistlesandkiwis. If you want to get in touch, email me on lofgren@thistlesandkiwis.com